2. And that goes to my next point. Is there a way such that stupid people and poor people have fewer children and smarter people and people with actual resources have more children? That seems to me to be the true problem. I do not care if Western Europe, or the United States, for that matter, becomes primarily Hispanic (or whatever 'scary' ethnicity people worry about) due to birth rates -- but only if these children are being born into families with resources and have the opportunity to become educated, contributing members to an advancing society. A country full of unskilled labor (and, in turn, no scientists) is not be useful to anyone.

Thank you!!!! Finally someone mentions population control. You always hear environmentalists yak about "going green" and they provide every thinkable solution from expensive electric cars to never using grocery bags, but no one ever points out that having more babies is just producing more polluters.

Population control was huge and talked about in the 70s...let's hear more of it now.

Good gracious. Someone has made headlines with an ideal I've lived by for years! When and if we want children, we'll opt for adoption.There are millions of children in the world at any given time in need of a home, loving care, and family.

"I might inform those humanitarians who have a nightmare of new and needless babies (for some humanitarians have that sort of horror of humanity) that if the recent decline in the birth-rate were continued for a certain time, it might end in there being no babies at all; which would console them very much"

Actually, a large reason white people tend to be wealthier than minorities is that yes, they tend to have only 2 children, and they wait until they're in their mid to later 20's to have them. In contrast, and I speak from experience, latinos feel as though they're "missing the boat" if they wait that long. I say this with all love and respect for my latino friends. OF COURSE, there are exceptions.

<quoted text>2. And that goes to my next point. Is there a way such that stupid people and poor people have fewer children and smarter people and people with actual resources have more children? That seems to me to be the true problem. I do not care if Western Europe, or the United States, for that matter, becomes primarily Hispanic (or whatever 'scary' ethnicity people worry about) due to birth rates -- but only if these children are being born into families with resources and have the opportunity to become educated, contributing members to an advancing society. A country full of unskilled labor (and, in turn, no scientists) is not be useful to anyone.

First thing- stop the goverment from subsidizing the growth of the poor. If these people are on welfare or other goverment programs - they should not be allowed to have children that they cannot provide for. If you look at the latest growth statistics, it clearly shows certain classes growing at 20% while others are only growing 2% - which is why they say the white majority will be gone in 2048.

2. And that goes to my next point. Is there a way such that stupid people and poor people have fewer children and smarter people and people with actual resources have more children? That seems to me to be the true problem. I do not care if Western Europe, or the United States, for that matter, becomes primarily Hispanic (or whatever 'scary' ethnicity people worry about) due to birth rates -- but only if these children are being born into families with resources and have the opportunity to become educated, contributing members to an advancing society. A country full of unskilled labor (and, in turn, no scientists) is not be useful to anyone.

Yeah, who would decide who's smart. Everyone has a place in this world and most people can be smart if you add education and subtract crime and poverty.

ok so here's the deal, now i'm being told to stop having kids to save the planet. That's great, makes sense to me. Problem is that as an rationalist, I understand these arguments and would have limited my offspring to 1.5 or whatever, but all the churchies aren't rationalist or they wouldn't be following the biblical command to "be fruitful and multiply". So we made a conscious decision to have more than our allotted 1.5 offspring to counterbalance the folks that lack a firm grip on reality believing their imaginary friend in the sky will keep the planet nice and healthy for their 8 undisciplined children. If the heathens don't have more children who will take care of the Earth in the future? And besides, once the "rapture" comes we'll need to have enough children to assure we can keep the world running.

Another important factor is that children from small families simply do better in life than children from larger ones given the same income and general environment. "Middle child" syndromes is recognizable at three kids. The reason is quite simple and well-documented: kids that get more one-on-one time with parents do better than those that do not. This translates into better intellectual development (paying off in better school performance and better job prospects) and better emotional development (paying off in happier people in general).

And, of course, we cannot overlook the benefit to parents, particularly women. Women with too many kids cannot lead intellectually satisfactory lives. There is a reason why all of those housewives in the 1950's and 1960's were stoned on valium and booze all of the time: they led lives that were less intellectually stimulating that those led by monkeys in zoo cages.(Most of those monkeys are insane, by the way.)

Coming from a large family myself, I have to admit: I cannot think of a single advantage that it provided me, whereas the disadvantages that it placed in front of me creates a list so long that it is pretty darn depressing to even contemplate!

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